Free Alpha's Captive 03 - Flight by V. M. Black Page A

same time as he started the car.
    As he pulled onto the road, Harper allowed herself to relax fractionally. Brett was committed now. He probably just wanted to get them to Harrisburg as quickly as humanly possible. He drove in a kind of intense silence, pushing the tiny car fast down the highway.
    “Thanks again, Brett,” Harper said when they were a couple of miles down the road. “We really appreciate it.”
    “We…?” Brett echoed.
    “Yeah, me and…Fido,” Harper said.
    Again, the merest hint of a noise.
    Brett perked up. “You actually named your dog Fido? That’s kind of cool, because no one actually does that. Like, you know what it means, right? It means ‘I am faithful.’”
    “That’s totally what I was thinking when I named him that,” Harper said.
    Brett frowned then. “Where’d he go?”
    “Who?” Harper asked with all the innocence she could muster.
    “Fido. He’s not there.”
    “He probably decided to lie down on the floor,” she babbled. “He does that sometimes, you know. Sometimes he likes to hang his head out the window, and sometimes he likes—”
    “ What the hell!” Brett yelled, the car jerking to the side.
    “Watch out, Brett!” Harper grabbed for the wheel.
    “Naked, ” Brett sputtered. “Naked dude!”
    Harper looked back. Levi had shifted back into human form, and he was grinning with his gun pointed steadily at the driver.
    “He’s got a gun,” Harper said helpfully.
    “He’s naked.”
    “I’m not sure why that’ s more upsetting than the gun.”
    “Where’s the dog?” Brett asked.
    “What dog?” Harper said automatically.
    But Brett’s brain wasn’t connected to his ears anymore. “We’ve got to run,” he urged, his foot pressing ever harder onto the gas. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
    “Um. We can’t because you’re driving, and he’s in the car with us,” Harper pointed out.
    “Oh, my God,” he said. “Oh, my God, ohmyGod, omigod, omigod—”
    “Pull over,” said Levi.
    “Slow down first!” she squealed, grabbing the wheel again as Brett jerked it to the side at ninety miles per hour.
    Bret t’s foot shifted from gas to brake, hitting it hard enough that Levi grunted as he was shoved against the back of the front seats.
    “Now pull over,” Harper suggested as the needle dropped below thirty.
    “It’s a man. A dude. A dog or a wolf or a—werewolf.” Brett all but gasped the last word.
    “I knew you’d figure it out,” she said encouragingly.
    “A naked werewolf. It’s a full moon. A werewolf.”
    “Not right now, but it probably will be tonight, from the looks of it. You’re a pretty observant guy, Brett,” she said as the car rolled to a stop. “Still on about the naked, though. Werewolves don’t eat people all that often these days, but I’d hurry up and get out anyway. But take off your shoes first and leave them here.”
    “My shoes?” Brett repeated stupidly. He tore his eyes away from Levi for the first time since he changed to stare at Harper.
    “Your shoes. Take them off,” she said. When he didn’t move, she invented madly. “Werewolves only eat people with shoes on.”
    Brett threw the car into park. His hands shaking, he pulled his shoes off, first one and then the other. And then, for no apparent reason, he tossed his knitted cap down, too.
    “Good job,” Harper said. “You can go now. We’ll try not to total your car, but after what happened last time, well, no promises.”
    Brett didn’t seem to be processing what she said as he scrabbled for the door handle and tumbled out.
    “ You’d better get out of there,” he pleaded. “Or he’s going to eat you, instead.”
    “He already has ,” said Harper, scooting into his seat and mashing the brake as she shifted the car into drive.
    Brett was standing on the side of the road and shaking, his hair sticking up in all directions from the knit cap. “You’re crazy. You’re all crazy.”
    “Maybe,” she agreed. “But I’m not the